The Fusion Rice Sartù is a fusion kitchen “experiment” based on a traditional Italian recipe: the Neapolitan rice sartù.
Rice first arrived in the Neapolitan city at the end of the 14th century from Spain, in the holds of Aragonese ships. It was the time of epidemics and it was prescribed as food for the sick.
It was the 18th century, during the reign of Ferdinand I of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies, that Rice Sartù was born.
When Ferdinand I married Maria Carolina of Austria, at the behest of his wife, who did not love Neapolitan cuisine, refined French chefs were called to court who, knowing the Neapolitans’ aversion to rice, decided to make it more appetizing.
They added ‘a pummarola, peas, boiled eggs, fior di latte, meatballs and sausage.
The term sartù is indeed a distortion of the French term “sortout”, the centerpiece that was in use in the 18th century and could also be used to serve sartù, or to indicate the “above all”, that is, the special breadcrumbs “cloak” under which the ingredients are placed, inside a rice timbale.
Today there are two versions of sartù: a white one – which follows – and a red one, and the internal ingredients may vary according to taste, although the basic ingredients are never missing, in addition to those already mentioned: Neapolitan ragù (white or red), bacon and mushrooms.
In the past, chicken livers were also used, and lard or suet as fat.
My white fusion version has an oriental hint and replaces fior di latte (or provola), with silken tofu, for the Tofu Menu, of the “Building the Menu” section, lard with Indian ghee, Mediterranean dried mushrooms with shiitake mushrooms, white wine with sake, meat broth with miso.
Usually a cone or ring mold of 9.5 to 10 inches is used.
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 2 Hours
- Portions: 6 people
- Cooking methods: Stove, Oven, Frying
- Cuisine: Fusion
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 7 oz beef (muscle)
- 3.5 oz sausage
- 2 pork ribs
- 1/2 glass sake
- 4.5 oz peas
- 1 oz shiitake mushrooms
- to taste salt
- 14 oz mixed ground meat
- 3 tablespoons pecorino cheese
- 1 egg
- to taste breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons rice flour
- to taste seed oil
- to taste salt and pepper
- 1.1 lbs Carnaroli rice
- 1 tablespoon miso
- 6 tablespoons pecorino cheese
- 3 eggs
- to taste breadcrumbs
- to taste butter
- 4 boiled eggs
- 12 oz silken tofu
- 7 oz bacon (diced)
Tools
- 1 Mold cone
Steps
For the white ragù: sauté the onion in ghee, add the finely chopped meat, sausage, pork ribs, peas, mushrooms after soaking them in hot water for a few minutes and cutting them (700 gr tomato puree for the red version), deglaze with sake, add a glass of water and cook for about 1.5 hours. Adjust with salt.
Check and add more water if needed.
If using chicken livers, brown them in lard with bay leaves and a little broth.
For the meatballs: add to the minced meat the pecorino, the egg, the breadcrumbs, and the rice flour. Season with salt and pepper. Form small meatballs and fry them in a pan with oil.
For the rice: toast the rice, cook for 17 minutes adding broth with miso (2 liters of water in which 1 tablespoon of miso has been dissolved at the time of boiling). Finally, stir in the grated pecorino cheese.
Turn off, add the eggs, and let it cool slightly.
Line the mold with butter and breadcrumbs, add a part of the rice then the boiled eggs breaking them, the ragù, (the livers), 1/3 of the meatballs, the tofu, the bacon, cover with the other rice and bake in the oven at 356°F for 40/45 minutes.
Let it cool before carefully turning it over.
Serve with the remaining meatballs on top.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What is fusion cuisine?
A type of cuisine that combines elements from different culinary traditions and thus creates new and innovative dishes.
Fusion cuisine should not just be a mix of flavors, incorporated into a dish without any logic, but should incorporate tastes from different origins, in a harmonious way.
It is possible to identify three different types of fusion cuisine.
A first type is represented by cuisine that literally merges culinary styles from various cultures, giving rise to new inventions.
Then there is the more “commercial” one which takes the name of the culinary art of one country and transfers it to another: for example, an Italian restaurant in America, which offers dishes from our tradition revisited according to American taste (see article dedicated to The recipes of the TV series The Bear).
The third type, unites ingredients belonging to different geographical areas, associated with the creation of a new tradition: the most famous example is that of Tex-Mex cuisine.
